Hi Reader,
Tools beat rules every day
I had a conversation with a writer recently that made me a little sad and a little angry.
Not because of the writer - she was wonderful - but because of the struggle she’d gone through before finding me and the misapplied advice that led her down that winding road draft after draft after draft.
She’d been told to show instead of tell. So she was trying her best to show everything.
But here’s the thing: “show, don’t tell” is a massive oversimplification. First, we should be showing and telling. It’s not either/or; it’s about knowing how to do both effectively and knowing where to do it on the page.
Second, “showing” isn’t just one thing. The effect that we call “showing” is the combination of multiple fiction techniques working together to create an immersive experience for your readers.
Curious to know what those elements are? You can listen to a mini-rant on this topic on Instagram here.
Many of the fiction “rules” that we talk about all the time are treated as goals that we should aim for.
They aren’t.
They’re merely tools that we use to accomplish our true goal: writing a damn good book that our readers love.
I feel the same way about reverse outlining.
Real quick, if you’ve never heard this term before, a reverse outline is an outline that summarizes your finished draft as opposed to the typical outline that we use for planning a draft before writing.
You may have tried reverse outlining before. You may have thought that it doesn’t work because nothing magically unlocked when you summarized your story.
The real problem is that you might have been thinking about that reverse outline the wrong way.
I think reverse outlines are great. They are an amazing revision tool and I think they are hands-down the best way for pantsers & newbie writers to get control of messy drafts.
But I will never claim that they are a one-size-fits-all solution.
I will never claim that you have to reverse outline in one specific way (and that’s why I give multiple reverse outline templates in my course that writers can adapt as they see fit or ignore completely in favor of their own formatting).
There’s also one important thing everyone needs to know about reverse outlines: they aren’t going to do anything in your story.
At least not by themselves.
A reverse outline is a great tool for getting clarity on what’s happening in your story.
It’s a great tool for condensing your story and isolating your focus to plot-level elements.
It’s a great tool for testing out edits in a contained format instead of rewriting your entire draft multiple times.
But a reverse outline is only a tool. And a tool is only as good as the strategy behind it.
Specifically, a strategy that enables you to do two things:
- Analyze that outline based on the standard you have for your book.
- Turn it into action when it’s time to revise your draft.
Want to hear more about how to make sure your reverse outline strategy has both essential elements? Listen to Episode 39 of the Better Writer Podcast “Reverse Outlines Don’t Work Without This” here.
And if you’re ready to learn a strategy for creating & using a reverse outline as part of your revision process, hit reply and let’s chat!
Better Living
For everyone who has been following the Minerva-saga, she has officially found a place at an in-home daycare through Rover where she's getting lots of love and freeze-dried chicken as she gets used to spending time with a new person!
Better Reading
I’m still reading Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife* by Deston J. Munden and loving it.
I'm not usually a cozy fantasy reader, but this one has me hooked. Partly because the main character's backstory could have been it's own epic dark fantasy saga and that makes me happy for some reason and partly because it's simply delightful and I want to see what happens next.
Thank you for reading, have a wonderful week, and happy writing!
With love,
Olivia
Your story matters. Let's make it great.
Curious to know how I can help? Check out my services here. I can't wait to work with you, so you can write the book your future readers are waiting for!
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